Sojourn to the Past is a non-profit organization that has, since 1999, taken thousands of students to date out of the classroom and across the country for a life-changing educational experience via hands-on lessons on the Civil Rights Movement. The inspirational program has empowered thousands of high school students nationwide by bringing to life the injustices that are too often buried in our country’s past. The transformative process integrates education and experience in lessons of acceptance, social justice and standing up for the rights of all humans to a teacher’s daily audience – impressionable youth.

In 1999 Sojourn to the Past was founded by Jeff Steinberg, recipient of the Jefferson Award and US Senator Barbara Boxer’s Excellence in Education Award, to transform 11^th and 12^th grade students into a new generation of leaders. Through a highly emotional and eye opening ten-day journey to a period of segregation in the Deep South, students learn about a moving piece of history behind racism in the United States, and reflect upon their ability to embrace diversity and become active advocates for social justice.

Through the lives of civil rights foot soldiers that were taken through the movement, as well as stories of those surviving Movement veterans, student participants learn to view society differently. Sojourners are challenged to reach within themselves to define the values that drive them and to articulately defend the principles of equality and justice – a deep and personal inquiry that, no matter the caliber of the teacher, can rarely happen in a classroom.